[Illustration: FILIPPINO LIPPI: MADONNA AND ST. BERNARD (detail of
angels)]
[Illustration: SEPPI; ANGEL OF ANNUNCIATION]
Filippino and Botticelli came later than Fra Angelico, and the Florence
of their day had begun to draw away from medieval traditions in art
in favor of more learned technical accomplishment; yet one can hardly
see any waning of sentiment in the work of these men. In fact, the
sentiment of Filippino is often perilously near to sentimentality, so
intense and earnest is the feeling of the man. His Madonna is always
on the brink of tears, and his angels are in perfect sympathy with the
Madonna. Botticelli is more of an intellectual force; but he too is
saturated with sentiment to a point of morbidity. His Madonnas have
sad eyes, mouths that droop at the corners, hollow cheeks, and long,
flowing hair. They bend before the Angel of the Annunciation like
broken flowers, or agonize at the Crucifixion like lost souls. Their
sentiment is intense. Nor does it vary much when Botticelli dealt with
classic subjects. His Venus in her seashell, his Pallas, his Spring,
all have some of the same morbidity, mingled with mystery, melancholy,
tenderness, that we see in his angels surrounding the Madonna. This
personal quality of the painter is very attractive, and has perhaps
done more to make Botticelli popular than his fine qualities as a
draftsman and a painter.